Agree that if a parent was a star athlete, living up to his/her success is easier said than done for the child.
So I agree too that exceptions might be rare -- but I would not necessarily say extremely rare. I would be the first to admit that my knowledge of sports is quite limited, but off the top of my head, I can think of more exceptions (and am sure that others here can rattle off even more):
- Ken Griffey Sr. + Jr.
- Cal Ripken Sr. + Jr. + Billy Ripken
- Dale Earnhardt Sr. + Jr.
- The Howe family of hockey greats -- Gordie + two sons??
- Nastia Liukin's father was an Olympic gymnast, wasn't he?
- Davis Phinney + his mother + his father all have been cycling Olympians for the USA
- An American family (the Halls?) had three generations of Olympic swimmers, I believe.
Maybe not quite analogous, but from sports journalism:
- Jim McKay + his son Sean McManus (most recently head of CBS Sports)
- Curt Gowdy Sr. + Jr. (I forget which network is Junior's home at the moment, but he is a sports producer at the highest level).
Not only was Nastia Liukin's father an Olympic medalist, her mother was a world champion in rhythmic gymnastics. Her teammate by the way, was fellow world champion Tatiana Druchinina, the mother of Artur Dmitriev, Jr.
To add one more, although she's not particularly well known (I only know of her because she attended the same high school that I did), Nancy Swider-Peltz, Jr. an Olympian at the Vancouver Games in speed skating, is the daughter of 4 time Olympian, World Record holder and Speed Skating Hall of Fame honoree, Nancy Swider-Peltz.
Of course, I'm sure you can find plenty of other examples in other sports.
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